ten beautiful things

1.  a new boy easily befriending a shy child at recess.  
2.  very young children behaving perfectly at mass
3.  the pool still open
4.  picture book read alouds - madeline, dr. suess, etc.
5.  salad for lunch
6.  sisters and brothers
7.  successful surgeries
8.  running
9.  reading to my children
10. sleep.

morning color

boston

thoughts to the east coast.

tar art

93 degrees and running

Cincinnati downtown in the distance

it was our first day of school.  wonderful, busy, and hot.  our school is not air conditioned.  running outside felt crazy.

Adam

He lives in Florida and is 36.  He has leukemia, and a way positive attitude.  His wife and two year old visit him in the hospital during chemo therapy.  Adam is my dear friend Wendy's little brother.  You can check out his story here.  


The illness is awful: the beauty is in his upbeat approach to it.  

color

ohio river

 you can barely see the river through the morning fog.  we were running along a bike path in northern kentucky.

 now on the cincinnati side.

sharp

this is the first and last time all the pencils will be sharp at once.  little fingers will keep them working and use up the erasers.  

beautiful people

the school where i teach is loaded with beautiful people - in the truest sense - kind, thoughtful, and loving.  yesterday parents painted the staff room and reorganized it so the working materials are together on one side, and the refrigerator and microwave on the other.  a thoughtful change.  


the teachers are devoted to our students, hard working, and creative.  dear friends, too. 


my everyday life for the next ten months will (mostly) be at school, so the beauty will be there, too.   

suburban office park

running on a street of office buildings, this carving surprised me.  beauty is in the beholder's eye, but someone had spent time to create this.  ah!

almost time

the colored pencils need sharpening, the books organizing, but the classroom is almost there.

teacher - top 10

reasons preparing for school is beautiful - 
10.  getting rid of old and worn out materials
  9.  seeing neighborhood children playing on the playground
  8.  the boxes with lots of new supplies and materials
  7.  meetings to learn about materials - like our new smart board and web pages
  6.  cool weather, so cool classrooms
  5.  middle school children helping
  4.  parents painting the staff room - wow.
  3.  seeing colleagues who are dear friends
  2.  having a wonderful partner to share the preparation
  1.  getting ready to see my students who i've missed this summer - and to meet new little ones!

evening sky

a walk

preview

life is good

when we moved here, i thought this was "old timer".  

can

dented

lake 3 - morning

the horizontal buoy line 

the sky reflected

fun waiting to happen

lake 2

beautiful relatives

these pictures might not exist but for the daring and wonderful terry and john.  when the camera fell in the lake, it was visible, working, trying to take a picture of the water.  john jumped in and retrieved it.  then, with tiny tools and a the point of a large kitchen knife to turn the screws, he opened it.  terry googled how to fix videos, and next thing - it's in rice for 24 hours.  my practical dad already had a printout about the rice.  here are pictures, courtesy of loving and talented relatives.

cool moose

the corn shop trading company

Black flies bite!  May is not the time to come to Maine.

that's my sign!

very funny.  no children in the store when i was there, though.